#understandingthetask

McGrath, Molly. Advantages and disadvantages of the various approaches to essay planning and writing. Photograph. 15 April 2016.

Unlike the architect writer, I struggle to make a plan for my essay (or even drafts), and tend to “plunge” into my work as the diver writer does. However, I differ from the diver writer in that I usually have a fair idea of what my essay is going to be about before I begin. I do tend to cut out and add in material while in the process of writing an essay; chopping and changing out sentences as I develop my key points and alter my ideas. In this way, I take inspiration from the patchwork style of essay writing – although I don’t tend to make, revisit, or add to drafts. My ideas are almost fully-formed in my head before I write them down, and therefore they do not need to be “fitted together” with the kind of planning a patchwork writer requires.

I am, without a doubt, a grand plan writer. First and foremost, I like to examine every aspect of the essay brief to ensure I’m addressing as much of it as possible. Rigorous reading, research, and note-taking and retaking allows me to form a rough but coherent essay in my mind, which I’ll then write, revising as I go.

Reading that this was actually a common method of going about writing an essay was somewhat reassuring for me, as I had assumed the way I approached essay writing wasn’t very appropriate for the academic environment. Everybody else seemed to do large amounts of planning, drafting, and redrafting; something I’ve never felt the need to do.

The purpose of an analytic essay is to argue a particular point of view and convince the reader to adopt this view (Merk) by “defining the subject, exploring the subject, and drawing conclusions”(Clarke, 148).

The level of perception in an analytic essay is determined by the depth with which the student addresses the essay brief. This perception marks the difference between an analytic essay and other genres of academic writing. Informative or descriptive essays are straightforward “expository writings” (Merk), whereas an analytic essay requires the author to adopt critical thinking in order to examine, interpret and contextualise the essay topic/question (Clarke, 25, 148) and make a potent, convincing case around a belief that stems from this analysation (Lundberg).

The implicit requirements of an essay brief must be addressed in addition to those that are demanded outright (Clarke, 166). By combining one’s point of view regarding each of these aspects with research and evidence from the text one should be able to successfully construct a well-argued analytic essay (Clarke, 167).